Jeff Schudel: Cleveland Cavaliers must search for answer to Kevin Durant after getting booted from Finals in five games

LeBron James reacts during the second half of Game 5 of the NBA Finals on June 12 in Oakland, Calif.
Marcio Jose Sanchez — The Associated Press

The Golden State Warriors lost the championship to the Cavaliers last year and instead of sulking they wooed Kevin Durant with the promise of the chance to finally win a championship ring after nine years with the Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder.

Durant earned his ring and a Finals MVP Trophy to go with it after the Warriors eliminated the Cavs, 129-120, in Game 5. Now the Cavaliers must find their own answer to Durant in this short, short offseason that began at 11:45 p.m. on June 12.

It is too soon to predict how the Cavaliers are going to respond to make their roster better. One reason is general manager David Griffin is set to become a free agent. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has to sign him to a new contract quickly or another team will.

Durant was the difference, but not the only difference between the Finals last year and this year.

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Which team had the better bench was debated before the Finals began. That was answered throughout the series. The edge went to the Warriors, so whoever is in charge of making the Cavaliers better is going to have to make the bench better, too, because although LeBron James might still be the best player in the world, this series proved James and Kyrie Irving need help to seriously contend for another title.

And what about James’ pursuit of Michael Jordan’s greatness and Jordan’s championship rings? He is now 3-5 in NBA Finals. This was his seventh straight Finals appearance. To work as hard as he did, against a far better team — he had 41 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists in Game 5 and averaged a triple double in the Finals — and come up short again has to leave wondering what it will take to get that fourth ring, and then the fifth and sixth to equal what Jordan did with the great Bulls teams, winning six titles between 1991-98.

And still, as dominant as the Warriors were in the series, the Cavaliers have to believe the should have had a better showing.

The Cavs led Game 3, 113-107, with less than three minutes to play and lost, 118-113. They believe the series should have been tied 2-2 heading into Game 5.

They had their chances to silence the crowd in Oracle Arena and send the series back to Cleveland for Game 6.

Thirteen should have been added to the official attendance in Oracle Arena, because that is the number of Cavaliers who stood around watching the Warriors take the game over in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers led, 37-33, after one quarter — the first time in the 2017 Finals they had the lead after 12 minutes in a game played in Oracle Arena. But then, inexplicably, they stopped playing defense. The Warriors turned the four-point deficit to a 71-60 halftime advantage, and the Cavaliers needed an 8-2 surge at the end of the second quarter to make it that close.

The Cavaliers spent the rest of the game recovering from their sluggish second quarter. The Warriors had an answer each time they made a run.